YTD 2025 Networth tracking thread

[yslvlys]

That is about 3%… if you don’t mind, can share where you park the 800k cash? A lot of the options have upper limit…

Mostly in the money market funds across the different brokers like Moomoo, Tiger and Webull (essentially all are just Fullerton SGD cash fund) and also UOB, Ocbc, Boc and esaver. MMF don't have upper limit? Even without promo still about 3.5%p.a. Anyway will switch more to bank accounts soon once the promo ends. But will still maintain some in MMF.

 

[hwmook]

Mostly in the money market funds across the different brokers like Moomoo, Tiger and Webull (essentially all are just Fullerton SGD cash fund) and also UOB, Ocbc, Boc and esaver. MMF don't have upper limit? Even without promo still about 3.5%p.a. Anyway will switch more to bank accounts soon once the promo ends. But will still maintain some in MMF.

We are the same age, seeing the amount of CPF OA you have also seem to indicate that your salary is not low, should be comparable to mine. Over the years I have chosen a different path and put my money into stock market which allow me to get to a 2.5m liquid networth instead of 1m that you have. Do consider putting more of that cash to investment, it will benefit you in the long run.

 

[yslvlys]

We are the same age, seeing the amount of CPF OA you have also seem to indicate that your salary is not low, should be comparable to mine. Over the years I have chosen a different path and put my money into stock market which allow me to get to a 2.5m liquid networth instead of 1m that you have. Do consider putting more of that cash to investment, it will benefit you in the long run.

Haha even if I put in more then, I wouldn't have had the conviction to hold them like you did with AMD from the early years till now. I sold off some of my SG stocks during the 07/08 crisis when they recovered and breakeven a little bit! I rmbr you mentioned AMD dropped 50%+ after you bought? That would freak me out already, much less continue to hold it long term.

 

[limster]

Haha even if I put in more then, I wouldn't have had the conviction to hold them like you did with AMD from the early years till now. I sold off some of my SG stocks during the 07/08 crisis when they recovered and breakeven a little bit! I rmbr you mentioned AMD dropped 50%+ after you bought? That would freak me out already, much less continue to hold it long term.

while we can't change the past, I think this is a good illustration of why 'time in market' is better than 'timing the market'. By holding onto good quality stocks instead of selling them, 1m can easily become 2.5m. Hopefully new investor will benefit from this sharing.

 

[Mephist0pheLes]

1.06m now. didnt increase much even tho portfolio doing well. had quite abit of spending due to housing reno

Decided to exclude my hsing equity in my calculation

Mar 24: 1.005m

 

[yslvlys]

while we can't change the past, I think this is a good illustration of why 'time in market' is better than 'timing the market'. By holding onto good quality stocks instead of selling them, 1m can easily become 2.5m. Hopefully new investor will benefit from this sharing.

It could have gone either way for single stocks. Hard to know if it is a good stock. Also we are in a bull market now. Could have been like Baba as well.

 

[highsulphur]

It could have gone either way for single stocks. Hard to know if it is a good stock. Could have been like Baba as well.

then just buy global equity ETF. You only need to bet whether stock markets in general will be higher or lower in xx years

 

[yslvlys]

then just buy global equity ETF. You only need to bet whether stock markets in general will be higher or lower in xx years

I am. Just that only allocate up to 1/3. Really hard for me to have conviction that things won't go wrong. Those who are comfortable and took the risks really deserve their payday.

 

[yslvlys]

Decided to exclude my hsing equity in my calculation

Mar 24: 1.005m

About 20% is CPF?

 

[Mephist0pheLes]

About 20% is CPF?

about 1/3

 

[highsulphur]

about 1/3

your have 300k in cpf

how old

 

[yslvlys]

your have 300k in cpf

how old

I think he is 33/34 only.

 

[limster]

It could have gone either way for single stocks. Hard to know if it is a good stock. Also we are in a bull market now. Could have been like Baba as well.

During GFC, I read up on Modern Portfolio Theory on how to create low risk portfolios (i.e. the same diversification benefits of ETFs). and value investing on how to look for undervalued stocks, then I constructed my portfolio. It was not perfect, but I made more money than say, leaving it in cash or even in CPF.

What is interesting is that in the GFC period, there was a whole lot more discussion of various investing theories and people were interested in what good books to read for investing. In 2024, people seem to have stopped talking about investing theory (except Kyith in Investmentmoats but I doubt most millenials will read his most recent investing post which incidentally references some MPT concepts which is 4,500 words long) Instead they will go to Kelvin learns investing for soundbites.

 

[yslvlys]

During GFC, I read up on Modern Portfolio Theory on how to create low risk portfolios (i.e. the same diversification benefits of ETFs). and value investing on how to look for undervalued stocks, then I constructed my portfolio. It was not perfect, but I made more money than say, leaving it in cash or even in CPF.

What is interesting is that in the GFC period, there was a whole lot more discussion of various investing theories and people were interested in what good books to read for investing. In 2024, people seem to have stopped talking about investing theory (except Kyith in Investmentmoats but I doubt most millenials will read his most recent investing post which incidentally references some MPT concepts which is 4,500 words long) Instead they will go to Kelvin learns investing for soundbites.

Not sure of the risk profile of the MPT and how much better risk adjusted returns you had made, but we are in a bull market now so I think most stock portfolios will do better than cash. Also the thing is Kyith's portfolio seems to be all over the place and doesn't seem to be doing exceptionally well.

A counter example for me would be dividendwarrior, if I read his blog correctly. Dividends investing was all the rage. Based on his latest post, his dividends reached 40k in 2023. However, I see that he has also lost more than 40k in market value. DW would have been a millionaire if interest rates never rose. Of course once interest rates dropped, his portfolio may also rise 20-30%. I could have less than a million if I somehow invested like DW.

 

[limster]

A counter example for me would be dividendwarrior, if I read his blog correctly. Dividends investing was all the rage. Based on his latest post, his dividends reached 40k in 2023. However, I see that he has also lost more than 40k in market value. DW would have been a millionaire if interest rates never rose. Of course once interest rates dropped, his portfolio may also rise 20-30%. I could have less than a million if I somehow invested like DW.

DW is transparent enough to publish the negative returns from bad years so he definitely lost money in some years , but like I said "time in market" is better than "market timing" so one should look at multi-year returns. DW publishes his annual XIRR so it looks like over a longer term, he is doing fine.

I also lose money in some years and make money in some years, but overall I'm doing fine, roughly 8-9% CAGR. I'm sure there are others with double digit CAGR, but I'm happy with high single digit.

One of my big loser shares would be SPH, but when I calculated the CAGR including dividends, it was still 4% CAGR over 10+ years - which is not great, but the idea of owning a diversified portfolio of shares is that the winners balance the losers. So imagine that, even if you went all in and bought a loser share like SPH around the GFC period, your 4% CAGR will still be better than leaving it in fixed deposit

But most people can do better than owning SPH. I have elderly relatives who are very conservative and risk adverse, and the only shares they own are the local banks DBS, UOB, OCBC, because they have blind faith in the local banks. It actually turned out pretty well for them.

If you backtested your portfolio since GFC by calculating your returns if you bought shares instead of leaving in cash, I think you would also realise that your $1m will be $2m today simply by randomly choosing 30 shares that are part of a major stock market index for example (or buying property, because buy property in Singapore sure huat!)

 

[yslvlys]

DW is transparent enough to publish the negative returns from bad years so he definitely lost money in some years , but like I said "time in market" is better than "market timing" so one should look at multi-year returns. DW publishes his annual XIRR so it looks like over a longer term, he is doing fine.

I also lose money in some years and make money in some years, but overall I'm doing fine, roughly 8-9% CAGR. I'm sure there are others with double digit CAGR, but I'm happy with high single digit.

One of my big loser shares would be SPH, but when I calculated the CAGR including dividends, it was still 4% CAGR over 10+ years - which is not great, but the idea of owning a diversified portfolio of shares is that the winners balance the losers. So imagine that, even if you went all in and bought a loser share like SPH around the GFC period, your 4% CAGR will still be better than leaving it in fixed deposit

But most people can do better than owning SPH. I have elderly relatives who are very conservative and risk adverse, and the only shares they own are the local banks DBS, UOB, OCBC, because they have blind faith in the local banks. It actually turned out pretty well for them.

If you backtested your portfolio since GFC by calculating your returns if you bought shares instead of leaving in cash, I think you would also realise that your $1m will be $2m today simply by randomly choosing 30 shares that are part of a major stock market index for example (or buying property, because buy property in Singapore sure huat!)

Yes, but my point is all these are hindsight, selective and we are in a bull market right now and I have a diff risk profile. It could also have been a bear market now and results would differ? I can backtest using AMD, I can also backtest using Baba. I can backtest using MPT, can also backtest using REITS or even Crypto? . I wished I had picked up AMD, but I don't see how based on my risk profile, I could have stomach thru the volatility so the outcome would not be much better. At the same time, because of my risk profile, I avoided big bets in Baba and REITS so that's a plus for me. I don't really track my investments in detail like DW. But I recall DW is just 1 or 2 years younger than me and probably has a higher paying job (govt scholar I think). He was my inspiration when he was doing so well b4 Covid and I thought he would hit a million soon. Maybe he has other portfolio and funds, but if I had invested more in the same counters like DW (don't even need to be in same amount as him), I definitely wouldn't have hit 1M now. Of course things can change further based on market movements, but I don't wanna risk more than 1/3 of my portfolio in equities and am comfortable with what returns I can get with 1/3 allocation (which I had been holding). I do have REITS, the local banks, local stocks, STI ETFs, US, global ETFs and some China exposure. So my equities are diversified. Just that I prefer my allocation to not be more than 1/3.

 

[revhappy]

I think DW uses incredible amount of skill, and takes incredible amount of risk in order to generate his returns. It is definitely not possible for everyone.
He is pretty much 100% invested.
He is a very active investor.
He has mostly had winners, except for his foray into BABA, I beleive.

If he was average investor, he would have blown up his portfolio by now by choosing some dud REITs which have lost money.

But his skill has saved him, I don't think average investors should try to emulate his style.

 

[yslvlys]

I think DW uses incredible amount of skill, and takes incredible amount of risk in order to generate his returns. It is definitely not possible for everyone.
He is pretty much 100% invested.
He is a very active investor.
He has mostly had winners, except for his foray into BABA, I beleive.

If he was average investor, he would have blown up his portfolio by now by choosing some dud REITs which have lost money.

But his skill has saved him, I don't think average investors should try to emulate his style.

Yes, but if Fed didn't raise interest rates, I think he would have done better and his portfolio would have already hit 1M earlier. With interest rates cutting soon, his portfolio could rise much more in due time probably than most other pple portfolio comparatively.

 

[Mephist0pheLes]

I think he is 33/34 only.

yes correct, jus turned 34

 

[DevilPlate]

During GFC, I read up on Modern Portfolio Theory on how to create low risk portfolios (i.e. the same diversification benefits of ETFs). and value investing on how to look for undervalued stocks, then I constructed my portfolio. It was not perfect, but I made more money than say, leaving it in cash or even in CPF.

What is interesting is that in the GFC period, there was a whole lot more discussion of various investing theories and people were interested in what good books to read for investing. In 2024, people seem to have stopped talking about investing theory (except Kyith in Investmentmoats but I doubt most millenials will read his most recent investing post which incidentally references some MPT concepts which is 4,500 words long) Instead they will go to Kelvin learns investing for soundbites.

right now the bible is just DCA into VWRA or equivalent whahahaha

U were busy reading books...i was busy flipping fri/sat classified checking out firesales whahahaha

CitySq Resi js about to TOP at that time and some owners letting go at 750psf at that time.....hehehehe